Three Arrested In Boy's Shooting

Three Teenagers Arrested In School Bus Shooting

Injured Boy Shows Signs Of Improving

June 12, 1992|By SUZANNE SATALINE; Courant Staff Writer

NEW HAVEN — Six-year-old Cesar Sandoval opened his eyes and squeezed his father's hand tightly Thursday, the most promising signs of survival yet for the kindergartner shot when his school bus was caught in gunfire on a city street.

"He's doing a lot better," said Joseph Montagna, principal of the Vincent Mauro School, where Sandoval attends morning sessions. "He had tears in his eyes, and he was able to nod his head."

The youngster remains in critical condition at Yale-New Haven Hospital, a bullet lodged in his skull. After speaking with doctors, police and school officials said they were optimistic the boy would recover.

The youngster was awake Thursday, and so far does not appear to have suffered major neurological impairment, said Dr. Phillip Dickey, who operated on the boy.

The bus shooting in the Hill area, one of the city's most-dangerous neighborhoods, angered and frightenend parents, already fearful of the growing drug-related violence that has left many teenagers and bystanders dead. Parents said they were keeping closer tabs on their children, and a group of high school students persuaded their bus driver to take a different route to avoid Frank Street, the site of Wednesday's shooting.

Police charged Luis Nunez, 17, of 73 Truman St., and two 15-year-olds with criminal attempt to commit first-degree assault and reckless endangerment. In addition, one 15-year-old was charged with first-degree assault because police believe his firing position was in line to hit the bus, said Sgt. Everett Nichols.

One minor, arrested early Thursday morning, was being held at the Whalley Avenue juvenile detention center. The other was arrested without incident about 5:15 p.m. at Dagget Street and Congress Avenue, police said.

Bail for Nunez was set at $600,000 and he was being held for an

appearance in Superior Cout today.

Police said the three teenagers fired 10 to 15 shots as they stood on the Frank Street sidewalk just before noon Wednesday. Police believe they were aiming at James Grier, 22, who had argued with a friend of the suspects' Monday and had escaped injury after someone shot at him the night before.

The shots Wednesday missed Grier, but nicked his car. One of the bullets, however, went through a window of the passing school bus. It struck Cesar in the head and slightly injured another pupil, police said.

"It's all stupid," Grier said Thursday, looking over the scarred houses on his block on the Hill "If they had a vendetta against me, they should have thought about the kids. I just want it all to stop."

Police initially said the shooting stemmed from a drug dispute. Along with two 9mm handguns and a .380-caliber semiautomatic pistol, they found 100 packages of cocaine in the basement of Nunez's house, they said.

But Sgt. Brian Sullivan said he had no evidence to link Grier, a convicted drug offender, to any kind of drug rivalry. Grier's information, police said, led them to the suspects.

Sitting outside his Barclay Street home a block from the shooting, Grier said he has been clean of drugs since serving a year in prison for conspiracy to sell cocaine. He said he used to sell drugs on Arch Street, but no more.

Grier said he did not know the youths involved.

Monday, he said, he had been walking down the street with a friend when two youths pulled up in a car, swore at him and asked what he was looking at. Grier said he asked the driver what he was looking at and the four fought. That night, as Grier was walking in the neighborhood, someone hiding in a bush fired shots at him, he said. Police made an arrest in that case.

"After that, I felt something was going to happen," Grier said.

Grier said he was driving on Frank Street to his girlfriend's home Wednesday when a friend of the pair he had argued with approached his car, and he stopped. A group of eight or nine youths -- police say four or five -- congregated on the other side, he said.

"I said, `Yo, you guys want to shoot me over a fist fight?' " Grier said to the friend, but the teenager didn't say anything, Grier said. He said he then heard shots go off from the other side of the street, so he hunched down in the car and took off.

"They started a fight I feel is stupid," Grier said, admitting he is scared. "I'm not going to shoot anybody and go to prison for 25 years. That's a lost life."

Thursday morning, several parents walked their children to Mauro School on Orchard Street, and police and security officers patrolled the area.

"Normally I would let him take the bus," said Corenthia Brown, whose 5-year-old son, Aaron Brooks, is a classmate of Cesar's. The two walked hand in hand to the school's front door. "I was going to keep him home. But he said, `No, Mom. I want to go,' " Brown said.